


such was not the duty of a lord

by suitablyskippy



Category: Gintama
Genre: Alternate Universe - A Song of Ice and Fire, Feudal Lord/Handmaiden, Good Old-Fashioned Feudalism, Other, Pastiche
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-07
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-09-07 03:22:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8781136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suitablyskippy/pseuds/suitablyskippy
Summary: As for the young barmaid herself, not yet ten years of age, it was obvious that she would need to disappear. Koshinori felt it best that she be sent away, perhaps to some conveniently far-flung inn in the furthest, most desolate reaches of the mountains, where she might live out her little life in peace. Kyuubei, delirious from the pain and the fog of the milk of the poppy, felt it best that the opposite happen – that the girl should instead be given the security of work in the castle kitchens, and her brother brought in to scrub the pots.It was nonsense, of course; but it was nonsense upon which Kyuubei continued to insist even once the delirium had passed.





	

**Author's Note:**

> written for the fic meme prompt 'Tae+Kyuubei+GOT', except i don't know the show so i just went full-throttle ASOIAF instead, and i'm still overwhelmed that that's just about the only canon where ‘feudal lord/handmaiden’ would be even more accurate than in gintama itself. thank you once again for letting me live my terrible dreams, anon! <3 (also includes rare sightings of pronouns for kyuubei, thanks to the POV character, which feels highly peculiar at this point in my gintama fic career.)

To say the fiasco had been unseemly did it no justice; to say it had been disgraceful did it only slightly more. To provide protection, to provide justice, to collect taxes and to see to it that the winter, if and when it came, did not wreak _too_ intolerable a level of damage on the lives and livelihoods of commoners: such was the duty of a lord. To draw a sword and interfere personally in a bar-room brawl with travellers too drunk or too foolhardy to recognise the son and heir of their own sworn liege: such was not the duty of a lord, no matter how pretty the little barmaid who had found herself terrified in the midst of the brawl might be. 

Kyuubei lost an eye. The travellers responsible did too, and then they lost far more. In lands sworn to the Yagyuu, justice was Lord Koshinori’s to dispense. 

As for the young barmaid herself, not yet ten years of age, it was obvious that she would need to disappear. Word spread fast; her very presence in the town reminded all who saw her of the stain upon House Yagyuu’s name, and the sooner she was out of sight, the sooner too she would be out of mind. Koshinori felt it best that she be sent away, perhaps to some conveniently far-flung inn in the furthest, most desolate reaches of the mountains, where she might live out her little life in peace. Kyuubei, delirious from the pain and the fog of the milk of the poppy, felt it best that the opposite happen – that the girl should instead be given the security of work in the castle kitchens, and her brother brought in to scrub the pots. 

It was nonsense, of course; but it was nonsense upon which Kyuubei continued to insist even once the delirium had passed. And perhaps – reasoned Koshinori – perhaps it would serve as a lesson for his reckless son, if he were forced to see her every day; if he were to see the girl hurrying about her work and be reminded, every time, that she was the reason he had had to begin training at arms again as though from scratch, as clumsy with a sword as a child of far less than his own nine years. Perhaps it would remind him how high the cost of foolhardiness could be. 

But if the sight of her was hard for Kyuubei to bear, it was not apparent from the frequency with which Koshinori began to receive reports of the heir to the castle being chased from the kitchens by irascible cooks, who did not appreciate his near-constant presence underfoot. Nor did the cooks appreciate the presence of the girl herself, it seemed – when complaints were sent to the kitchens regarding the inedible black char which was now served up for every meal, it was she who received the blame. 

“The cooks say she’s incompetent,” said Koshinori, “and the serving girls say she’s obstinate, and _I_ say she’s responsible for the maiming of my firstborn son and rightful heir.” He glowered at his firstborn son and rightful heir, who knew better than to challenge him. “I _will_ not keep her in my service any longer, and that’s the end of it.”

His firstborn son and rightful heir listened dutifully, then went away. To the sparring grounds, to the kitchens: both were equally likely nowadays. At evenfall Kyuubei came back to join the family at dinner and suggested, in the studiedly offhand manner of one who had thought of little else all day, “I could keep her in _my_ service.”

“And what use would she be to you?” inquired Koshinori, as he prodded his knife with distaste into the mass of ashes which lay heaped before him. 

“To... run my baths,” said Kyuubei vaguely. “Or... fetch my clothes. Or keep my fire stoked. Or change my rushes. Or carry my messages. Or—”

Finding the girl a suitable position in service to one of the family’s lesser branches would involve a tiresome deal of effort, it was true; and though the wishes of the girl herself were irrelevant, it would be more tiresome still to endure Kyuubei’s constant petitioning in her favour. And perhaps it _was_ time he took a more active role in the management of servants; there was more to holding rule over one-seventh of the Seven Kingdoms than mere knightly prowess, after all. 

“She’ll be your responsibility,” warned Koshinori. “And by all accounts she’s incurably wilful; I don’t know how you think _you’ll_ be the one to train her into – come back! _Come back_ —!”

But it was too late: the next Lord Yagyuu had already raced from the table, leapt from the dais, and hurtled on into the narrow stone hall which wound downwards into the servants’ quarters, stoic noble dignity cast aside as carelessly as the charred remnants of the family’s meal. 

_Unseemly_ didn’t cover it. Such interest in a common kitchen maid was nothing but a mortifying blemish on the family name.

**Author's Note:**

> [originally posted [here on tumblr](http://suitablyskippy.tumblr.com/post/153539425529/tae-kyuubei-got)! and then since i couldn't get the whole terrible incredible concept of this AU out of my head (AND STILL CAN'T), there's even more to be found [here (kyuubei & tae)](http://suitablyskippy.tumblr.com/post/153575335854/i-wrote-that-kyuubei-tae-asoiaf-prompt-yesterday) and [here (the rest of the gintama ASOIAF world in general)](http://suitablyskippy.tumblr.com/post/153616963639/shinpachi-ends-up-squiring-for-gin-whos-a-hedge).]


End file.
